


I'm thinking about my future

by sherlylikeswaffles



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: Ben Wyatt's POV, F/M, Fluff, episode Halloween Surprise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-21
Updated: 2015-07-21
Packaged: 2018-04-10 11:51:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4390823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sherlylikeswaffles/pseuds/sherlylikeswaffles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ben is in Washington, thinking about his future, when he realizes that all he wants for his future is to be with Leslie. So he leaves Washington, buys a ring and gets to Leslie. So basically it's the episode Halloween Surprises written from Ben's point of view.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'm thinking about my future

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to my friend, Pocket Pavel, for beta- reading. It would be awesome if you leave a comment when you like it.

The future...Ben had stopped making larger plans after the Ice Town incident. After his failure as a mayor, his main goal had been to get his credibility back. And being an auditor had worked out quite well...well except he lost his job. But considering that he could be with Leslie instead, it seemed like a very small sacrifice to make. Leslie. Whenever Ben had thought about the future, really his future and not what aspects of science-fiction would become reality, he had never considered love before. Sure, he had had crushes before and he had gone on dates, but he had never really been in love. And being in love with Leslie was all consuming.  
His phone peeped. It was a text from Leslie:   
“I miss you” was all it said. Ben smiled and his eyes became a bit teary. “Miss you, too” he texted back. Jen had said that she had seen how much he loved his job. And he had to admit to himself that he was quite good at this. But then again, Jen didn't seem to be the kind of person that fell in love or in fact knew anything about love. If she did, she would see that he may love his job, but there was nothing in the entire world he loved more that he loved Leslie. So why was he still not sure what to do? He could not accept the job in Florida. The past six months without Leslie had been pretty bad and in Florida he wouldn’t have the historical monuments and political celebrities to cheer Leslie up. No, wherever he went from now on, he just had to go there with Leslie. Or, in fact, stay in Pawnee.   
He would propose to her. He was certain of it. The only question was how? Leslie loved big gestures but he didn't really like being in the center of attention so he had to ask her when they were alone. And he had to do it soon or he would loose his nerves. He turned on his laptop and checked for the next possible flight to Pawnee. It left in three hours, that would give him enough time to find a ring for Leslie. As he left his hotel room, he received another text from Leslie.  
“Told Martha we won't take the house. Going to say goodbye to it in the afternoon”   
At first Ben was confused. Who was Martha? But then he remembered that she had helped Leslie pick out a house for them or live in together. If there had been a tiny bit of doubt left in Ben, it disappeared as he reread Leslie's message. On his way to the jewelery store he called Ann.   
“Hey Ann. It's Ben.”  
“Hey Ben. What's up?”  
“I need your help. I'm going to propose to Leslie and....” he couldn't go on because Ann was screeching into his ear so loudly that he had to put the phone away from his ear for a few seconds.  
“Oh, Ben. That's amazing! Wonderful! Leslie will be so happy!”  
“Thanks, Ann. So can you help me?”  
“Of course. Whatever it is, I'll be your buddy.”  
“Okay... right. Well, first of all can you call this woman Martha and tell her that Leslie and I are going to take the house even though Leslie will say otherwise?”  
“Does this mean that you didn't accept the job in Florida?”  
“Yes, I want to live with Leslie.”  
“Oh, Ben. You are so adorable. Why aren't there more men like you? Although, no offense, I wouldn't want someone exactly like you. That would be weird because you are marrying my best friend anyway...”  
“Ann,” Ben interrupted her blabber, “I also need you to pick me up from the airport and take me to the house.”  
“What house?”  
“The one Leslie picked for us. You helped her with this, actually... I want to surprise her and ask her to marry me. Can you do this?”  
“Sure. Any thing, any time. I'd do it all for my two favorite lovebirds. Ugh I start to sound like Leslie...”  
“And no word to Leslie, okay?”  
“My mouth is shut, Ben. Now get your butt over here.”  
“Enough with my butt already,” Ben muttered after he hang up.   
Finding the perfect engagement ring for Leslie was harder than he had imagined. They were either too enormous, too expensive or not special enough. Finally he settled on good, old and traditional diamonds. Although he was quite pleased with the diamond ring in its blue velvet box, he felt like it lacked the personal touch. In his luggage he found the dark red box that Leslie had handed him with the miniature Washington Monument. He had put the Monument right next to a picture on his desk of Leslie and him sitting on the bench in front of the wildflower mural. It was now thrown into a box with all the other stuff Leslie had sent him over the past months. He put the empty box in his coat pocket and bought some glue at the airport. When he was seated on the plane, he pulled out the ring box and the other box and glued the bottom half of the original ring box to the dark red one Leslie had given him. The elderly woman sitting next to him looked at him curiously. But when Ben put the diamond ring in the larger box, a huge grin spread across his face.  
“You are getting married?”  
“Yes, well... uh I have to ask her first...”  
And then he told his neighbor everything about Leslie, how they had met, how they had fallen for each other and how he missed her in this very moment. Ben usually didn't like small talk or chatting, but he could talk about Leslie all day long. The elderly woman didn't seem to mind. When the plane had landed and everybody started to get up, she told him: “She is going to say yes, your Leslie.“  
Ben smiled but now that he was getting closer to Leslie, he grew more nervous with each step. On his way to Ann's car, he realized that he didn't write down any ideas for his marriage proposal. But he now had lost this chance to draft out what he wanted to say to Leslie because the whole flight long he had talked about Leslie non stop. But when he sat in Ann's car and Ann chatted excitedly the whole drive long, he decided to just screw it and say whatever his heart told him to say. This was about Leslie, after all. Leslie, the love of his life.   
“Ben?” Ann had stopped the car.   
“Yeah?” He asked, lost in thoughts.   
“Listen to me, Ben. You will be fine. Leslie loves you and she's going to say yes. She has to.”  
“Thanks, Ann.”  
“You're welcome. You know, I think you are good for her and if anyone should marry her, it should be you, so if she doesn't say yes, I'm going to make her. Because, although I just said that you are the perfect husband for her, I'm her best friend and she loves me more than you and she is going to do whatever I say.”  
Ben laughed nervously. “Thank you, Ann,” he said again. Ann smiled at him. “Really, Ann, I mean it. Thank you for everything. And thanks for encouraging Leslie to break the rules and date me. Thanks for making me meet her in the park. I don't know where Leslie, where I would be without you...”  
“Stop it, Ben. Don't you dare make me cry. Go in there, fall on your knee and get the girl!”  
“Alright!” said Ben and got out of the car. This was it, he thought, he was going to propose to Leslie.   
Ann had handed him a key to the house, which looked beautiful and just like the right place to live with a family, his family. He didn't know how Ann had gotten it but he had had more important things on his mind to ask. He unlocked the door as quietly as he could and saw Martha, who stood in the hallway, smile at him knowingly. She pointed toward the living room door and left through the front door.   
Ben took a deep breath and walked into the living room. There she was, Leslie. She was wearing a pretty red and gray dress, red really was her color. She looked breathtakingly beautiful in this very moment.   
“Hey”, she said surprised. Her face lit up just from the sight of him. Her smile was enough to keep him going on bad days and now it was enough to make him step forward.   
“Hey,” he replied.   
“I didn't know you were coming back here,” Leslie said.  
“Oh.” Not the smartest thing he had ever said.   
Leslie asked: “What are you doing?”  
Before he could do or say anything stupid, he got down on one knee.   
“Oh my god, what are you doing?” Leslie exclaimed, and she looked so surprised and overwhelmed, he just wanted to get up and kiss her. But he stayed where he was and said what this really was about:“I'm thinking about my future.” He opened the box and showed her the ring although his intentions had been quite obvious already. He just wanted to do this the right way. This was a moment they would remember for the rest of their lives.   
“I'm deeply, ridiculously in love with you and above everything else I just...I wanna be with you forever...So Leslie Knope, will...” Before he got to the end of this question, probably the most important question he had ever asked in his life, she interrupted him.   
“Wait. Wait. Okay?” He was confused. What was it now? But before he could panic and wonder what he did wrong, he saw the tears in Leslie's eyes and her breathtaking smile and he knew that she loved him.   
“Okay,” he said.   
“Just, I need to remember this.” Okay, that explained everything. To Leslie special events were extremely important. That's why she made a scrapbook for every single one of them. And right now, she was making this moment into a scrapbook in her head.   
“Sure,” he smiled up to her.   
“Give me a second.” Leslie inhaled deeply.  
He counted to three and then tried again: “Leslie Knope..”  
“No, no, no, no, no hold on. Just... I mean, another second please. I need to remember every little thing about how perfect my life is right now...at this exact moment.”  
“Okay.” Ben smiled at her like she was the most beautiful thing in the world, which to him she was. When she just stood there, remembering everything, he started to look around, taking in the sight of their new living room. He nodded like he approved of its look but actually his mind was spinning with excitement and anticipation. After a while, he couldn't wait any longer and cautiously asked: “Are you good?”  
“Ya, I'm good.”  
Ben started his third try: “Leslie Knope, will you...?”   
Once again he didn't get through to the end of the question but this time he was interrupted by an extremely excited “Yes!” and that was really all he wanted to hear.   
Ben got up and kissed Leslie. He was overwhelmed with happiness in this very moment. He would remember this moment just like Leslie would as nothing but perfect.  
They were in the middle of a serious make-out session, when he remembered that he wanted to do this the correct way. So between kisses he asked: “Marry me?”  
“Oh, yeah.” Leslie said like it was the most obvious answer in the world.   
“Okay, great.” He said and then his lips where back on hers.


End file.
